Love deserves a chance
by hollywoodxo
Summary: hailey and austin. its a little corny. but i like corny. so shut it.:
1. Give Love A Chance Hailey

Chapter 1 - "Give love a chance, Hailey."

Hailey Rae Wood squeezed her eyes wondering if somehow magically it would put her back to sleep. As she opened up her eyes realizing that she would always be a failure at sleeping in, she rolled over onto her other side, surpised and yet not shocked at all to see her best friend Austin sleeping beside her. His hair was roussled and was down the side of his face drooping into his eyes. She could hear him lightly breathing and it was surprisingly very attractive. If anyone had walked into the room and saw them laying beside eachother half in the bag, the only thing that wouldn't make you think that they had just done the deed was that they still had all their clothes on. The night before they had spent the evening watching old movies like they did every night the week before Christmas. They would watch at least two christmas movies each night, the seven nights before christmas. They truly had no idea why they did it, but it had been a tradition since they both were toddlers. They had laid in Hailey's bed half the night talking about who knows what and Austin had fallen alseep instead of going home. That night though, he was planning on sleeping in his own bed for a change. But it was not willed so. Everyone knew that this was a regular occurance for Hailey Wood and Austin Jones. They had shared a bed with eachother since they were in kindergarten. They shared everything from Austin's sweatshirts to Hailey's skateboards. Hailey blinked as she watched Austin twitch. It was an awkward twitch, and she narrowed her eyebrows sketchily. She grinned and almost started to laugh but was interrupted by Austin yelling abruptly and grabbing onto her shoulders, causing her to rage into screams. As he burst out into spontaneous laughter, Hailey sat up and crossed her arms over her chest. "Not cool.." she said waiting for him to stop laughing, but of course, he didn't. "And not funny!" she shouted slamming a pillow into his face. Austin, not knowing his own strength, and Hailey, being a quite small girl, picked her up by the waist and held her up in the air. Calming down and throwing the pillow away, Austin set her down on her knees and she sat there with a blank expression on her face. "You are..." she started.

"Devlishly strong? I know. I get it from my dad's side. We all have this strength that we never know where it comes from." Austin announced flexing his suprisingly large, yet amazing, arms.

"Stop bragging you jock." she said sticking her tongue out.

Austin was always the type to be on every sports team there was but hated ever been called a jock, he was the type that never wanted to be sterotyped and hated sterotyping other people. Everyone was equal in his eyes, and no one was different then anyone else. That was one of the things Hailey admired about him. "I'm not bragging, I'm just showing you what Madelyn Mae is missing out on."

Hailey nodded and looked away, pretended to be ashamed, by covering her eyes with her hand. She turned back around smirking and laughed softly.

"If that girl doesn't like you right now, then she's crazy and doesn't deserve you."

"That girl that doesn't like me right now is just in denial and doesn't know it yet."

"Austin, don't do this. You need a girl that likes you for you and doesn't need a year to figure it out. We've been over this, kiddo. Over it and over it and over it." Hailey said, evidently exaggerating.

"Hailey, you just don't know what it feels like to be in love."

"Maybe your right. Maybe your wrong." she said shrugging.

"Why don't you give Kane Dawson a chance?"

Hailey pictured the face of Kane Dawson, her other best guy friend that truly did mean alot to her. And no one acutally knew but two weeks before they had kissed, they both didn't know if it was what they wanted but for the moment it was what they liked. As she twirled a piece of hair around her finger, she sighed.

"You can't ruin a friendship over love, Aus. Its just too risky. Me and Kane are too close for that."

"You never know Hails. You never know." he said taking the piece of her hair and putting it behind her ear. "Stop doing that its annoying me." he said smirking.


	2. Gimme 20

As Austin and Hailey pulled up in the parking lot of their school, Hailey sighed and pushed the button to take off her seatbelt.

"Another day at this place. Do you think we'll make it?"she said squinting her eyes from the morning sun.

Austin smirked and took of his seatbelt, sitting up higher then he was to wave at Madelyn Mae. She was one of the more spunky girls at their school. She was a theatre geek but had a striking beauty about her that no one could ignore. She was one of the girls that didn't need anything to make her look better than she already did. She was a lot different then Hailey was and she wondered how he could be in love with one girl and be best friends with another one that were so much different from eachother. As she turned her head looking at where Austin was staring she watched Madelyn wave back at him. As soon as Austin looked away Madelyn waved at Hailey and she smiled back with a short wave. _Yeah, Yeah, Madelyn you know how much I want to feed you to the sharks, so now you start kissing my butt. _

"Such a nice girl." Hailey said cheerfully and sarcastically.

"Oh Hailey, go and tell Kane how madly in love with him you are." Austin said shoving part of his granola bar in her mouth and getting out of the car.

"Hey now!" she shouted after him with food still in her mouth. She quickly got out of the car with her bag around her shoulder and caught up to Austin. "Don't even say Mr. I-never-know-how-I-feel-about-Madelyn."she said swallowing the granola bar.

"Hailey, go find Kane and go to gym class." he said walking into his chemistry class. She glared at him as he walked in and greeted his team mates from the hockey team. He caught her eye and stuck out his tongue and crossed his eyes. It only lasted a second but he made it so that only she had seen it. She couldn't help but laugh and waved goodbye. He was the only one that could ever do that. He was the only one that could ever take a bad situation and make everything better. She thought back to the time when it was her seventh birthday and she had a party at her house. There was numerous people at that party but now all she could remember was Austin, her friend Reece and Addison Carmicheal. Addison was a boy that had big glasses and a dorky smile but you couldn't help but invite him to a birthday party because he would make everyone laugh. Whenever Hailey's mom had broughten out the cake, Hailey had blown out her candles, and opened her eyes to find Addison kissing her cheek. It had completely shattered her world, because at that time, boys were the last thing you ever wanted putting their lips anywhere near your face. Austin had been the one to make that same crazy face that he had just made and made her forget about everything that had gone wrong.

Kane had started walking with her as she had come back from reminising about the old days and she turned to smile at him. "Hey Kane." she said smiling at him. He smiled back. That was one thing about Kane Dawson. He had a smile for everybody and what amazing smiles they were. As they walked down the hallway she felt his hand brushing his and they looked at eachother knowing what they both wanted. But for right now, no one could know about them. Cause they didn't know how they felt about eachother either. Reece had come up beside them and hugged Hailey,smiling. "So did you happen to see the lovely surprise someone left in the girls bathroom this morning?" Reece asked waving to many people saying hello to her in the hallway. That was Reece, she was one of the most well-known girls at school, and had the tendancy to know abosutely everything going on at J.K Ross High School. Hailey shook her head no, and looked over at Kane rolling her eyes. Reece kept talking and went on about this whole speel about how someone had taken permanent marker and wrote across every mirror that Euince Higgins was the creepiest girl to ever cross the J.K Ross halls. Reece frowned and looked pityly at Euince walking down the hallway. "I mean seriously, is someone that low to make fun of someone who has a high IQ?" she went on. And she went on and on. Hailey and Kane walked into the gym with Reece behind them ranting about who knows what. "Last one to the middle of the gym has to do 25 push-ups." said Hailey running to the girls changeroom. "Make it 50!" yelled Kane running even faster to the changeroom. That morning Hailey had put on her gym clothes underneath her track pants and sweatshirt and ripped them off as soon as she got into the changeroom. She walked slowly out to the middle of the gym, knowing that Kane would take another minute or two. As he ran out of the the boys changeroom and saw Hailey sitting there he smiled that hundred watt smile and knelt down beside her. "Your think your pretty funny don't you?" he asked running his hands through his hair. Hailey bit her lip. It was true, Kane Dawson was one of the most attractive boys she had ever known to be at Ross High School. _That smile. _She thought watching him do his push-ups._Scratch that, that body._ She started laughing. "Sucks eh Dawson?" she said smirking from ear to ear. He finished up quickly and stood back up quickly and grabbed her hand, holding on gently. Hailey bit her lip even harder this time, and knew that if anyone had ever saw them right them, the whole school would be talking. Kane Dawson was the one boy that had every girl after him, but he had no clue about them. They were all either too afraid to approach him or were too scared to be rejected to ever tell him the truth. Hailey smiled at him and then looked down at their hands. Kane bent down close towards her lips and kissed her. They stood there kissing for a minute or two but was stopped by their gym teacher, Mr. Everwood, yelling at them.

"Dawson! Wood! Get down and give me 20!"

Hailey and Kane moaned as they heard the drill sargent gym teacher scream at them. Yes, the one gym teacher that agreed to teach a Co-ed class had to be an ex-drill sargent in the navy. They both went down to do push-ups and grinned as they both glanced over at eachother at the same time. They both stood up again and started laughing hysterically for no aparent reason.


	3. Peace Out Girl Scouts

Hailey didn't even know if she wanted that kiss. She didn't even know if she wanted Kane. At this point and time she didn't really know what to do. Except to go get advice from her best friend, which was the one thing she didn't want to do, but she knew she had to. After Gym she walked to his chemistry class and waited for him outside the door. She smiled at his hockey team that walked out of the class, and jokingly whistled and checked her out, looking up and down. She knew every one of the boys by name and they all teased her by whistling whenever she was around. Her uncle, Kevin Wood, was their hockey

coach and invited Hailey on many tournaments to help out. She was an amazing defenseman and was a good asset to the girls hockey team. As Austin walked out he sighed knowing that something was up. "Hailey! Its first period!" he said squeezing his eyes shut.

"I know! I know! But this is tragically urgent!"

He hesitated for a minute. "Go on." They walked to Austin's locker and Hailey started pacing briefly.

"Okay, so in gym, me and Kane were joking around and long story short, he ended up having to do 25 push-ups, and when he got up he grabbed my hand and almost kissed me if it weren't for Mr. Everwood and his crazy drills." Okay, so she hadn't told him the total truth. But she wanted to see how he would take it. Just the idea of Kane kissing her. Austin shook his head hearing this and held out his hands like a crossing guard.

"Woahh, Hold up trigger. He tried to kiss you?! Well do you want him to? Do you need me to say anything to him?"

Hailey was surprised at how rilled up he was getting over this, but she weirdly was enjoying it.

"Woah, you slow up. I don't know, at the time I wanted him to. I just am really confused cause now I don't know if I like him or not and I don't even know if this is a good idea or not." she said searching his face for an answer.

"Hailey, I can't tell you what to do. You have to figure out if you have feelings for Kane or not. But Hailey, be careful. I've heard stories about him."

"Like what, Austin? Hes never even had a girlfriend."

Austin bit his lip, looking at Hailey's face. The only reason he hadn't said anything to Hailey about the way Kane really was, was because it truly wasn't any of his business. Truthfully two weeks before Austin had found Kane and Madelyn at Frazer Sadler's party in a room together. They were doing things that no one needed to know about ever. Kane and Hailey were good friends and he wasn't going to try to change her opinion of him, because that was something Hailey had to figure out. But now it was getting more serious. Hailey was starting to get romantically involved and that could not happen. He had witnessed to much about Kane Dawson that he didn't even want to think about.

"Your hiding something from me." She said watching him biting his lip. He always did that when he was nervous about something. They both bit their lips all too much, but for many different reasons.

"Its nothing Hailey." He wasn't about to tell her who she could and couldn't date. "I just want you to be careful alright? And I'm sure if it felt right with Kane at that moment it'll feel right again." he said smiling.

She narrowed her eyebrows at him and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Why are you being all weird?"

"I'm not. But you deserve to be happy to. And I'm not about to tell you who I do want you to date and who I don't want you to date."

"Whatever, weirdo. I'm going to go home for lunch. I need to call Mai and talk to her about all of this." she said walking closer to him and wrapping her arms around his neck, hugging him. He smelt like Abercrombie cologne and she breathed in deeply. "I'm so glad I got that for you for christmas last year." she smiled and started walking away. "Oh and we need to go christmas shopping soon. Like really soon." she said calling after him.

"I dread it every year." he said smirking and walking her walk out the door. Okay so maybe he didn't dread it. He actually loved it. But that was no different then when he did anything with Hailey. There was just something about the two of them together that made everything they did so much better. Kane walked past and he suddenly got this weird feeling jolting up his spine. Was it jealously perhaps? He shook his head. He couldn't start this now, the one guy that kept trying to convince Austin that he really was jealous of boys that Hailey liked was coming up to him.As he shut his locker he shook his head laughing. seeing Addison Carmicheal standing there.

"Hey Adddison." Austin said starting to walk away.

"Austin, when are you going to realize that you are madly in love with Hailey Wood?"

Austin shook his head at the temporarily insane guy walking beside him and started walking faster.

"Addison do we have to talk about this right now?"

Addison was one of the very few people that had the guts to talk to Austin and Hailey about how they were secretly madly in love with one another. The other one being Reece. No one would ever get it through their head that Austin and Hailey had been best friends since the first day in kindergarten and planned to keep it that way.

"Yes, we do acutally. Did you just see the way you two hugged eachother? Its obvious to the whole school that you guys are meant to be together." Addison was still geeky, but just in his classes. His look had acutally improved a lot. He lost the glasses and had apparently gotten some fashion advice over the summer. But he still needed some improving on the social skills.

Austin stopped walking and wanted to crawl in a hole as Addison yelled to the whole school.

"WHOEVER THINKS AUSTIN AND HAILEY ARE SECRETLY MADLY IN LOVE WITH EACHOTHER PUT UP YOUR HANDS!"

Every person in the hallway put up their hands and Austin looked around at the people with their hands up. The only people who didn't have their hands up were Kane Dawson and Madelyn Mae.

At about this time Hailey Wood walked back into the school, hading forgotten her keys, and looked errily at everyone with their hands up in the air.

"And wave 'em like you just don't care!" Addison said waving his hands around in the air.

Everyone started dancing with their hands up in the air and Austin hit Addison in the back of the head. Hailey walked towards her locker and looked completely creeped out as everyone finally put their hands down and proceeded to class.

"If this day could get any weirder." she said waving to everyone as she shut her locked back up with her keys in her hand. "Peace out Girl Scouts."

And then again she went.


	4. You ARE Jealous

As Hailey walked in late, as usual, she smiled sweetly at the teacher, getting away with it as usual. Math class was always a joy, the only reason being that the teacher, Mrs. Greenaway was half out of it and didn't clue in when someone was late or if someone wasn't there at all. In her eyes, all of the students were perfect angels that couldn't do anything wrong in the world. As she took her regular seat beside Reece, she glanced at her and was taken back by the look on Reece's face. It was one of those looks that makes you want to scream at her and ask her what you did wrong.

"What?" Hailey asked whispering.

"You weren't here so now Austin and Madelyn are off galavanting doing who knows what."

Reece and Hailey both had a secret hatred towards Madelyn, and Reece was on Hailey's side with not wanting Madelyn and Austin ever together. As Hailey looked over across the room to Austin's seat she saw it empty and frowned. She looked behind Austin's seat and so no trace of Madelyn. She didn't know this weird feeling that was coming over her, but it was sure coming on strong. Hailey glared at the front of the room not knowing anything else that wouldn't feel bad from her glaring at it. Reece stared at her and saw a look on Hailey's face that she knew excatly what it was, but had never seen it on her face when Hailey was talking about Madelyn and Austin.

"Hailey Rae Wood. You are jealous." Reece said in the loudest whisper she could muster up.

"I AM NOT!" she said almost yelling it across the room. Hailey covered her mouth realizing how loud she had just said that and sank into her chair. Naturally, Mrs. Greenaway hadn't heard a thing and kept going on with her lesson, but everyone, including Kane, turned around to see what was the problem. Hailey waved nonchalantly at everyone and then looked over at Reece, when they all finally turned back around focusing on Mrs. Greenaway and Algebra.

"I am most definately not jealous!" Hailey said back in a whisper.

"Hailey, I know the look you just gave to the blackboard and it wasn't the same look you usually give when Madelyn and Austin skip class. That was a green-eyed-monster-on-your-back look. And I know it."

"Reece, I am not jealous. Austin is my best friend. I would never be jealous of...Madelyn Mae." she said throwing her hands up in the air, but making sure no one could hear.

"Whatever." Reece said looking back up at the blackboard.

She couldn't be jealous. She wouldn't be jealous. She shouldn't be jealous. Hailey shook her head. Her and Austin were way too close for them to ever have a romantic relationship. _And Austin would laugh in my face._ At this moment, Austin and Madelyn, walked in the door together and sat down in their seats.

"Aren't you two a little late?" said Mrs.Greenaway shakily, pulling her glasses down on her nose.

"You just let us go to the bathroom like five minutes ago Mrs. Greenaway." Madelyn stated.

"Oh, well then..." Mrs. Greenaway trailed off and turned back to the blackboard.

Hailey pulled out her phone and looked in her contacts to find Austins name at the top. She clicked a_Send Message_ and started typing.

" Where the heck were you two?!"

She pressed send and looked over to Austin and watched him pull his phone out of his pocket reading the message. He started typing back with not an impressed look and she grimaced not knowing what she'd gotten herself into. As her phone vibrated she viewed the message and scrolled down.

"Somewhere that only two people can talk and other people don't butt in."

Okay, so Hailey had butted in a couple times when Madelyn and Austin were usually having intense coversations but she truly did not do it on purpose. Okay, one time she did do it on purpose, but still. You gotta do what you gotta do. Hailey pulled her neck back slightly, probably having a really big double chin, and pressed reply.

"Sorry, I asked."

She sighed and wondered what was going on with Austin. They had been fine this morning and nothing had seemed to be bugging him. She thought back to the last time they had talked. She had told him about her and Kane coming close to kissing and then she had left to go home before he could really say a whole lot. Her phone vibrated and she viewed the message.

"Look, I'm sorry, but it just didn't go very well. Come to my house after school?"

She smiled, one of her biggest smiles acutally, but covered it up wondering why she felt so udderly giddy. Why was Austin giving her that crazy feeling that went up your spine? Luckily her brown curly locks were covering her mouth and Austin couldn't see her goofy smile. She looked over at him making his crazy face with his tongue stuck out and she bit her lip. She pressed reply on his message.

"You know I could never say no to that."

The bell rang and she walked outside the school to his car, secretly trying to avoid Kane. But its not so easy.

As she went to go open the door to Austin's car she heard Kane's voice yelling behind her. She grimaced and watched Austin start to laugh as he opened his door and sat in the drivers seat.

"If you say anything about this I will personally murder you." Hailey said before Kane came up to her.

She turned around to greet Kane and she a smile came across her face, partly fake, but it was still a smile.

"Hey Kane. Whats up?" she asked with a sweet tone in her voice.

"Um, I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out tonight, it being Friday night and all."

"Um. That sounds really good Kane. But I'm kinda busy right now. But later? Like nine oclock later?"

"Yeah! Sure. I'll call you."

"Okay. Talk to you later."

Before leaving Kane glanced over at Austin and kept his eyes on him as he kissed Hailey's cheek. Wanting to get out of the car and rip Kane's arm off Austin bit his tongue gripping his steering wheel. He glanced over at Hailey's face and she didn't look impressed. It was a look that wouldn't have said she was happy but she wasn't completely disapointed either. Kane would've said that she looked radiantly happy, but Austin knew her better than that. As Kane left, Hailey got into the car staring blanky ahead.

"Did you feel anything?" Austin asked bluntly.

"I-I don't know." she stuttered looking over at him.

He wasn't about to tell her that Kane had just looked over at him as if to tell him that he had won. As if Austin was playing in this little game that Kane had started. He was starting to dislike Kane more and more every day.

"Look Hailey, I don't think Kane is a good guy for you."

Hailey narrowed her eyebrows and looked at Austin, dead in the eyes. He hated when she did that because she could always tell when he was hiding something from her when she looked into his baby blue eyes. Austin noticably bit his lip and backed out of the parking space and drove out of the school parking lot. Hailey kept her eyes on Austin as they drove and she shook her head wondering why he had said what he just had said.

"Why would you say that Austin? Why would you say that when just earlier today you wanted me to go tell Kane how I felt?" said Hailey rising with anger. They were pulling into Austin's driveway and Austin clenched his fists telling himself not to say anything stuipd.

"How do you feel Hailey?!" he said slamming his door shut. He kept his eyes on her and didn't look away. He didn't know why he was getting so angry. Did he really acutally have feelings for Hailey Wood? The girl that he had been best friends with since kindergarten? He shook his head as Hailey had a shocked look on her face. It quickly turned to rage as she looked at his face from across the car.

"Why are you doing this?" she said in a low voice, quickly rising. "Whenever I start to become happy, someone or something always brings me down somehow." she said tears starting to budge at the side of her eyes. "Kane is the first person to ever show me that maybe there is such thing as love, Austin." Hailey felt her stomach twisting up in a million different knots. She was starting to realize how she really felt. And she had feelings. But over the days events she realized that they really weren't for Kane. They were for Austin, there was evidence everywhere. The jealousy of him and Madelyn. The way that when they fought all she wanted to do was fight harder because it felt like she was fighting for him instead of with him. She knew what she had just said was a lie, but there was no way that she was going to tell him how she really felt.

"Do you know how Kane is with other girls, Hailey?" he said yelling at her.

"You tell me Austin. You tell me." she said glaring at him.

"I walked in on Kane with Madelyn in bed together at Frazer's party." he said in a low voice, looking down at his hands clenching onto the car.

The news hit Hailey like a knife in the stomach. For some reason she thought that maybe Kane was different. But she thought wrong.

"Wh-Why didn't you tell me?"

He walked over to the side of the car she was on and went to go wrap his arms around her but she stepped back.

"Hailey, I couldn't. I didn't tell Madelyn because I wanted to see if she would fess up and tell me the truth. That was where we came back from today. I finally told her that I knew and that it was over. She tried to hide it from me so I knew then that it would never work between us. If I told you, you know that you'd go and confront her about it."

Some things were starting to make sense in her head but too much unanswered questions were out-weighing the answered.

"I can't deal with this right now." she said turning around and started to walk away.

"Hailey, don't leave." he said calling after her.

She couldn't stay. She didn't want him to see her cry. He had seen her cry too many times. When her mom had died, when her brother had left town. She wasn't going to make it a third time.


	5. Whatever We Had

Hailey ran up her driveway to her car and opened the door with tears streaming down her face. Even though the Dawson house was a block away she didn't want anyone to see her crying as she made her way to Kane's house. As she pulled in the driveway she wiped her eyes with her sweatshirt and looked at herself in the mirror. "Don't look like your scared." she said aloud to herself. Because the truth was she was scared to death.

As she walked to the door she hesitantly rang the door bell and waited for someone to come to the door. Naturally, Kane had opened the door and could tell something was definately wrong. She looked at him and looked away walking back down the stairs. Who was she kidding? She couldn't do this.

"Hailey! Wait up." he said grabbing her shoulders and turning her around.

"Don't Kane."

"What? What is it?" he had an earnest look in his eyes so she just said it.

"I know about you and Madelyn." she said turning her face towards Kane's.

He looked down at his shoes and a frown curled around his lips.

"Who told you?"he said in a low voice.

"Does that really matter Kane?! Its Madelyn! You knew already that she was the one person that I can't stand!" she was yelling now.

" It didn't mean anything Hailey."

"Don't give me that. You know what hurts me the most?" she made sure he was looking straight at her. She lifted up his chin so that their eyes met. "Is that two weeks ago after Frazer's party. You came to my door and kissed me." she looked deep into his eyes and looked away.

"Whatever we had Kane? Is done." the tears were now budging at the sides of her eyes and she couldn't stay any longer.

She ran to her car and opened the door.

"Hailey! Wait!" she could hear him calling her name as she got in and started the car. He ran around the side of the car and tried to open her door but it was locked. She started crying and backed out. She gave the gas, and gave a lot of it. She kept driving. Driving somewhere, she didn't know. But all she knew is that she couldn't be near anyone.


	6. Unexpected Afternoon

Silence was all she could hear at that moment. She wasn't really even thinking anything. She just looked blanky ahead at the road. As she looked out of the corner of her eye she saw Madelyn Mae, laying outside at the front of her house. Looking as glamourous as usual, she was drinking a bottle of who knows what. Hailey slammed on the brakes with an angry look on her face and put the car into reverse. She had parked on the side of the road infront of Madelyn's house with more rage bubbling up inside of her then she had ever felt. As she slammed the door she made her way up to Madelyn and ignored her bright smile on her face.

"Well hello Hailey. What brings you here?"

The look on Hailey's face should've given it away but clearly Madelyn was too dazed to realize that Hailey's face was anything but a smile.

"I think you know." she said crossing her arms over her chest.

"Listen Hailey. Austin told me about the cancer and didn't tell you. He was going to but he just couldn't find the right time to tell you." she said rubbing tanning oil over her arms.

Hailey felt her stomah tying into huge knots.

"What are you talking about...c-cancer?" Hailey said. She felt something coming up in her mouth but she swallowed it.

Madelyn took of her sunglasses and looked at Hailey.

"He told me he was going to tell you. I'm assuming he didn't." Madelyn looked down at the ground, looking sorry for opening her mouth.

"N-No he didn't." Hailey stammered and stuttered but it seemed like she was doing absolutely everything she could do to not blow up.

Madelyn stood up and knew she had to own up to what she had just blurted out.

"When my dad was sick in the hospital this one time when I was there. I had saw Austin with his parents and it completely startled me to why he was there. We were pretty much going out at the time so he couldn't lie to me." Madelyn looked Hailey directly in her eyes.

Hailey said absolutely nothing.

"I don't think he meant to keep it from you. I think it was just to hard for him to say it out loud to you. Your his best friend Hailey."

She had forgotten about everything before this moment. She forgot about what Kane and Madelyn had done. She forgot about everything about her dad. She forgot about everything that was wrong in her life except for this very moment.

"I have to go." Hailey stuttered and stammered. She felt like her feet were glued to the ground but there was one person in the world that made her feel too many emotions at one time. And the one overcoming anger right now was one that she couldn't define.

It was either more anger, sadness, or love.

And getting into her car, she tried to figure out which one it was the whole way to Austins house.


	7. It's About Time

She couldn't believe the one person in the world that she thought told her everything had held back one secret that changed everything. As she robotically drove up Austin's driveway, she sat there for a couple minutes. Just thinking. She thought back to all the times when they had shared secrets and the way she knew she could trust him when he said he wouldn't tell. She thought about the times when he protected her from things that were going wrong in her life. She thought about when she looked up at him and wondered why nothing ever went wrong in his life so that she could be there for him. But this was that time. She didn't know how long he had known. She didn't know how long this had been going on. But she did know she had to get to the bottom of it.

As she walked up the concrete steps to his door she turned the knob and looked around to see him sitting on his couch with his head held up by his hand. She walked over to him to see him holding his phone. She bent over slowly and took his phone out of him hands. It had Madelyn's name blinking on the screen from a just ended call.

She waited for him to say something. Anything.

"I found out a year ago and they told me it wasn't as serious as other cases of cancer." he said looking up at her, and standing up.

She looked down at her shaking hands and then looked back up at him.

"So you thought it was alright to tell Madelyn and not me?" she said squinting her eyes slightly. It was the only thing for her to do not to cry.

The look of distress was in Austin's eyes and it took all of him not to want to wrap his arms around her.

"Hailey. You have to understand that I couldn't. I couldn't tell you that there was a risk that I might have to have chemotherapy. I couldn't tell you that theres a chance I might not live through this. I couldn't tell you because you are the most important person in my life. I couldn't tell you because..." There were tears wanting to come out at the corners of his eyes, and he finally let them go. " If I say it outloud to you..Hailey..then that means its the truth. And I don't want to believe that its the truth, and that its acutally happening to me."

Hailey didn't know what to do. She felt like she was going to pass out.

"What have the doctors said?" she said looking at the window.

" That I went to him at the right time but I'll still need chemo."

He searched her face for what she was really feeling, but even he knew Hailey needed time to process everything.

She shook her head. Everything was coming in too fast and she needed to get out of the house. She was getting clausterphobic and the sight of Austin looking at her the way he was was making her want to cry.

"I have to go." she said bluntly.

Austin frowned and looked at her. She would usually say that she would talk to him later or at least for him to call her. But she didn't. He knew that this was hurting her. Hurting her more than he could bare.

Hailey walked out the door and covered her mouth. She was crying so hard that she was barely crying at all. It was just outbursts of sobs. She didn't know how it had happened or why it did. But all she wanted to do was cry. And it was about time.


	8. Only You

As she pushed her hand through the sand she looked out at the tide coming in and she wiped her eyes with her sweatshirt. Her cheeks were tearstained and all she could think about was her dad. When Hailey was 11 years old her dad had been out jogging at night and a drunk driver had hit him. The car behind the drunk driver had stopped and called an ambulance. He'd been rushed to the hospital and made it through the night. Hailey and her mom had sat by his bed side all night and all morning. At 12 o'clock in the afternoon, he'd stopped breathing. She was 17 years old now and still thought about that moment. That night she had gone home to find Austin in her room waiting for her, sitting on her bed. She had sat down beside him and he wrapped his arms around her and let her cry. She didn't know how long they had sat there but she knew that he had been there for her.

As she felt the cold wind against her cheeks she grinded her fingers deeper into the sand. She thought about everything that had gone on before right now. How her best friend had cancer and she couldn't do anything about it. She could do absolutely nothing. _Except be there for him._ She suddenly had this thought and forgot about everything. She forgot that Austin hadn't told her and told Madelyn. She forgot that she had been decieved by one person she thought she could love. And suddenly she realized the one person that she could love and be loved by was the one person that was there the whole time..loving her. Austin Jones had been there through it all. And now was when she needed to be there for him. Just then, like magic she felt hands over her eyes. She put her hands immediately up to her eyes and brought down the persons hands near her stomach. As she turned around she saw Austin's tanned face above her. She couldn't help but to smile and waited for him to sit down beside her. He did so and wrapped his arm around her neck bringing her closer to him, hugging her. "Hey kiddo." he said muffled under his breath.

She felt tears stinging at her eyes again but closed her eyes and kept her face in his jacket. She smelt that familiar smell of his cologne and pulled back slightly.

"I need to tell you some stuff." she said looking down at her already shaking hands. She looked up at his baby blue eyes and saw him nod.

"First of all, I didn't tell you about the night after Frazer's party." she said looking at his baby blue eyes.

He didn't say anything. He just listened to her.

"I didn't go to that party and I guess before Kane went home he came to my house. We talked outside for a bit and then we kissed." she looked away from him and felt ashamed all at once "Then when I told you today that Kane tried to kiss me. He really did kiss me. And I regret it and I wish I hadn't done any of it. Because you think you know someone. And they go and turn around and do the one thing that you would never want them to do."

Austin kissed her head and wrapped his arms tighter around her. And thats all that he had to do. He really didn't have to say anything after he did that. She looked up at him.

"I'm sorry for making you feel like you couldn't tell me."she said in a whisper.

He did a half smile and smoothed his hand over her hair. " It's okay Hails. I think the main reason I didn't want to tell you was because I didn't want you to worry about me. I didn't want you to think that I wasn't going to be there for you. "

"Like you've always been." she said smiling. " How can you be so strong about all this, Austin?"

"Because, Hailey Wood. I have a best friend like you." he said grabbing her hand.

Hailey felt some what of an electricty going through their hands as they laced their fingers between each others. She knew that Austin was holding her hand because they were best friends and thats what best friends did for eachother. But right now? For Hailey, it was so much more than that. She realized that the one boy that showed her there is such thing as love was holding her hand and he could never know.


	9. Givin Love A Chance

Austin rolled around in his bed and looked over at his alarm clock. It was 8 o'clock and he had thirty minutes to get ready for school. He walked over to his bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror.He thought about the night before and how Hailey had found out about what made him the most scared he had ever been. He had completely forgotten about Madelyn and anything they had. When Hailey had found him with his phone he had just called Madelyn to tell her that he didn't want to speak to her again. Thats when she told him that Hailey had came over and Madelyn accidently spiled Austin's secret. After talking about everything Austin had realized one thing. He wanted to be there for Hailey. All the time. Not just as her best friend but as her boyfriend. He wanted to hold her hand and show Kane what he was loosing out on.

After he showered and dressed he put his phone in his pocket and grabbed his bag. He walked outside the house and got into his car. He drove over to Hailey's and beeped his horn, waiting for her to come outside. As he watched her come out of the door with her brown hair draping down on her shoulders and her goofy smile on her face as she opened the door to his car.

"You look lovely this morning." Austin said grinning.

"Why, thank you." she said grinning back at him.

As they went on talking about the dream that Austin had the night before and laughed the whole way to school. They pulled in the parking lot and Austin squinted his eyes against the bright morning sun. As they both got out of the car, Austin saw out of the corner of her eye, Kane and Madelyn holding hands. They were both walking into the school and Kane looked back at Austin with a smirk on his face. Austin didn't care. He had lost complete respect for both of them. He looked over at Hailey and saw her happy face turn to completely shattered. He hated that. He hated seeing her sad. He hated knowing that Hailey had been through so much already and Kane was putting her through even more. Austin went to grab her hand and he gave a half smile when she looked at him. "It's gonna be okay kiddo."

"How do you know?" she said searching his face for an answer.

"Because you have me."

They both walked into the school and looked around at the whole school watching them. Obviously, the whole school had found out about everything in one morning. It never ceased to amaze Austin that the whole school was obsessed with gossip. Kane walked past them both with his arm around Madelyn and Austin bit his tongue trying not to do anything he would regret.

"Hey Austin? It might take you a month before she'll kiss you."Kane said with a smug look on his face. He said it so that the whole hallway could've heard if they cared enough. Which of course they did. The minute Austin heard those words he walked towards Kane, grabbed his shirt and through a punch right in his jaw. It all happened so fast and the minute after Kane fell to the floor, Austin walked back to Hailey, grabbed her hand and made their way outside. As soon as they reached Austin's car, Hailey sniffed back a whole load of tears and couldn't help but cry. The tears streamed down her face. And this time she really didn't care. She didn't care because she knew Austin had seen them so many times before. He placed both his hands on either one of her cheeks and rested his forehead against hers.

"Hailey, I'm so sorry."

She kept crying and kept her eyes on his.

"Can we just go?" she said looking despretely at his face.

"Sure." he said as he walked to the other side of the car.

They drove in silence and waited till they both walked to the sands of the beach. They both sat down and looked up at the cloudy sky. The sun had faded to what looked to be a storm coming on.

"I'm sorry that I didn't save you from him earlier." Austin said in a low whisper.

"Don't be sorry. I made my own mistakes. You make your own mistakes. I guess we just have to learn from them." Hailey said shrugging.

"Hailey..." he looked into her eyes, deeply. But a different deeply then he usually did.

"Yeah?"

"I'm in love with you." he said wrapping his arm tighter around her side. Hailey was looking at him from the side as he kept his arm around her waist. This was the moment that took her breath away.

That moment that she secretly had waited for for a very long time.

He looked at her searching for an answer, for any words at all, acutally.

"I'm sorry that I feel like this and I know you don't feel the same but-"

Hailey cut him off by putting her finger to his lips and grinning.

"I love you too." she said with a breathy voice.

He bit his lip. She bit her lip. Austin leaned close towards Hailey and she moved closer towards his face. He lifted up her chin with his finger and kissed her lips.

"I'll always be right here." he said pulling back slightly and gliding his thumb across her jawline.

"You always have been. And you always will be." she said grinning.

"I'm just sorry I didn't realize this sooner."

"Me too. I mean, you were the one that was always there but I would just go looking for something different. Forgive me?" she said with a sweet look on her face.

He leaned in close to her again and rubbed noses with her.

"I could never hold a grudge against my best friend/girlfriend." he said with a smirk on her face.

From that moment on, Hailey Wood knew that maybe it was all going to be okay. Even though things went wrong she knew that it would be okay. And with Austin, everything was going to be alright. Even better than alright. Because with Austin she could be who she wanted to be. She was someone who wasn't afraid to cry. Someone who wasn't afraid to take a risk.

And most importantly, she was someone who wasn't afraid of love.


End file.
